Friday, March 17, 2006
Best of the best
... or how to effectively function in a team
Thing is it is entirely possible for one to solo his entire leveling carier in WOW, but past a certain point, if you want to be able to effectively participate in instance raids, you HAVE to function as a part of a well-oiled machine. You can be a player with great skills, you have great weapons and armor strapped on you, but if you don't manage to learn the teamplay aspect, and your role in it, you will fail on the entire front. Maybe you have been teaming with pickup groups, maybe you've even be lucky to end up in a few good ones, made of experienced players, but pickup groups rarely go beyond UBRS, because its just almost impossible to get the required level of co-operation and mutual reliance in a group of people that is playing together for the first time. Thing is, that in good teams, people know each other, know what to expect from each other, and function under certain rules, which you MUST accept in oreder to function inside that group. You must do your part of the job, do it right, and let other people do their jobs. Only that way you can tackle the hardest challenges! Depending on your class you can fit into single or multiple roles, for example at the very basic level:
- Damage dealers: Rogue, Mage, Shamman, Druid, Warlock, Warrior ...
- Crowd control: Mage, Druid, Rogue, Priest ...
- Healers: Priest, Shamman, Druid ...
- Tank: Warrior, Druid ...
As you see, single classes can usually fill more than one role, although most of the times they only fit one in practice, you must learn to fill all roles your class can fill so you can fill holes in your plan once things get hairy (maybe druid takes the damage dealer role initially, but then he realises situation just got hairy, and he dumps the damage dealing and starts healing, or he realises tank is going down, and goes to bear form to take over - most of those things are pre-determined, but sometimes you need to improvise. Everyone doing the right thing, and saving the day when it gets to the improvisation part is what separates good teams from the great ones. If I try to describe how and what for every class and role here, it will take ages,and lots of space. Best advice I can give you in a few lines, when you start going out with your future team is:
- first, as this is very important! BE PATIENT .. there is no hurry. If you have a date, or you go out with your friends, or your mom is making dinner - do not go on the raid. Once you do, your team counts on your presence and by leaving, you let everyone down. (Off course RL comes first, so if you have a kid you need to put to sleep, or make dinner for or anything, it IS more important then being in a raid, but we plan things in advance, so try to keep it down as much as you realisticaly can. Do not rush ahead and do things on your own, lay back and try to spend as much time as you can observing what everyone else is doing. Sometimes pulling that one mob a second too soon, or a second too late means a wipe, so be patient and let other people do their job while waiting for your turn.
- Second, but even more important! LISTEN TO THE RAID/TEAM LEADER! Raid leader is someone that has all the strings, and plans who should do what at what time, so everything goes well. Listen to the instructions and obey orders. Somewhere down the line, you will maybe fill the role of the raid leader later on, and you will apreciate people that listen what you say.
Do that, and in time, you will learn the strings of your class. You will be someone that your team mates can rely on. Don't do that, and you will become someone that people will avoid having in the team, because you will make them unsafe and insecure. The choice is yours.
Thing is it is entirely possible for one to solo his entire leveling carier in WOW, but past a certain point, if you want to be able to effectively participate in instance raids, you HAVE to function as a part of a well-oiled machine. You can be a player with great skills, you have great weapons and armor strapped on you, but if you don't manage to learn the teamplay aspect, and your role in it, you will fail on the entire front. Maybe you have been teaming with pickup groups, maybe you've even be lucky to end up in a few good ones, made of experienced players, but pickup groups rarely go beyond UBRS, because its just almost impossible to get the required level of co-operation and mutual reliance in a group of people that is playing together for the first time. Thing is, that in good teams, people know each other, know what to expect from each other, and function under certain rules, which you MUST accept in oreder to function inside that group. You must do your part of the job, do it right, and let other people do their jobs. Only that way you can tackle the hardest challenges! Depending on your class you can fit into single or multiple roles, for example at the very basic level:
- Damage dealers: Rogue, Mage, Shamman, Druid, Warlock, Warrior ...
- Crowd control: Mage, Druid, Rogue, Priest ...
- Healers: Priest, Shamman, Druid ...
- Tank: Warrior, Druid ...
As you see, single classes can usually fill more than one role, although most of the times they only fit one in practice, you must learn to fill all roles your class can fill so you can fill holes in your plan once things get hairy (maybe druid takes the damage dealer role initially, but then he realises situation just got hairy, and he dumps the damage dealing and starts healing, or he realises tank is going down, and goes to bear form to take over - most of those things are pre-determined, but sometimes you need to improvise. Everyone doing the right thing, and saving the day when it gets to the improvisation part is what separates good teams from the great ones. If I try to describe how and what for every class and role here, it will take ages,and lots of space. Best advice I can give you in a few lines, when you start going out with your future team is:
- first, as this is very important! BE PATIENT .. there is no hurry. If you have a date, or you go out with your friends, or your mom is making dinner - do not go on the raid. Once you do, your team counts on your presence and by leaving, you let everyone down. (Off course RL comes first, so if you have a kid you need to put to sleep, or make dinner for or anything, it IS more important then being in a raid, but we plan things in advance, so try to keep it down as much as you realisticaly can. Do not rush ahead and do things on your own, lay back and try to spend as much time as you can observing what everyone else is doing. Sometimes pulling that one mob a second too soon, or a second too late means a wipe, so be patient and let other people do their job while waiting for your turn.
- Second, but even more important! LISTEN TO THE RAID/TEAM LEADER! Raid leader is someone that has all the strings, and plans who should do what at what time, so everything goes well. Listen to the instructions and obey orders. Somewhere down the line, you will maybe fill the role of the raid leader later on, and you will apreciate people that listen what you say.
Do that, and in time, you will learn the strings of your class. You will be someone that your team mates can rely on. Don't do that, and you will become someone that people will avoid having in the team, because you will make them unsafe and insecure. The choice is yours.
# posted by Officer @ 8:34 AM 
